Valley native Jim Branigan has been an automotive mechanic for more than two decades, dating back to his teenage years when he would do work on vehicles at a trucking business his father owned.
Then another passion entered his life about 15 years ago.
“I stumbled across my voice,” he said.
Bitten by the music bug, Branigan traveled the country singing with various bands and producers before founding Progmatic in 2004, and has been splitting his time between alternators and amplifiers ever since.
Branigan, an Ansonia resident, opened Branigan’s Car Care Center & Sales in March at 242 Pershing Drive in Ansonia.
The Valley Indy stopped by the shop Monday (July 14) to talk to Branigan about his business and his music.
The two-bay shop is located at the corner of Pershing Drive and Bridge Street, and the phone number is 203 – 751-9416.
Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Click here to visit the business’ website.
The business also has a Facebook page.
Click here to visit the band’s website or check them out on Facebook.
The Valley Indy’s interview with Branigan is posted below.
Valley Independent Sentinel: How did the opportunity to open up this shop arise?
Jim Branigan: I’ve been in the business more than 20 years. I’m a musician, so the opportunity to be a business owner is something that I wanted to do. We decided to open up this place here. We still have the band, we’ll have been around a decade in December.
VIS: Had you been looking for location?
JB: We kind of stumbled across it. We saw the place was up for lease and thought it’d be a great opportunity to start a business up and get it running.
VIS: Were you just into cars from a young age?
JB: My father owned a trucking outfit. As a teenager I used to work on them, so I started working on cars and trucks at a young age.
VIS: Are you from the Valley originally?
JB: The whole family’s from Shelton. I was born in Derby.
VIS: You talked about your band. What’s the name?
JB: Progmatic.
VIS: Is that your car outside, then, with the “PROG 1” license plate on it?
JB: Yes.
VIS: Do you play progressive music, then? What about music makes it ‘progressive’?
JB: Progressive music has all sort of wacky, all over the place arrangements. Some of our stuff is like that. We’re not really a ‘progressive’ band. We fall under that Fuel, Nickelback, Creed kind of sound. It’s modern rock with a violin — my wife plays the violin in the band.
Article continues after video from one of Progmatic’s live shows.
VIS: Do you play a lot of live dates around here?
JB: We’ve opened for Fuel, Hinder, Tantric, Saving Abel. We’ve done a lot of dates at Webster Theater, Toad’s, we’ve played Manhattan, Massachusetts, mostly the tri-state area.
VIS: How long has the business been open?
JB: We opened March 19.
VIS: How’s business been?
JB: It’s been good, it’s been steady.
VIS: Just through word of mouth?
JB: Yeah, a lot of people around here know me, plus the music business.
VIS: You’ve been working in the area for years, so you must have a loyal customer base.
JB: It was always a problem with landlords selling properties I was in (working as a mechanic). Then I stumbled across my voice. Before I knew it I was traveling all around the country working with different producers. Now some of the music industry people are actually coming here to have work done, which is cool. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met have been through the music business. It’s definitely been a journey, with a lot of stories and a lot of coolness behind it. We’re not quite over yet.
VIS: Is there a most common problem people have with cars that they bring in?
JB: Most of it’s maintenance. Brakes, tires, belts, tune-ups.
VIS: Keeping things running well so they don’t have the big problem down the line, I guess?
JB: Yeah, what we always tell our customers (when they have problems) is we’ll always take you out and show you what’s wrong with your car, rather than just tell you what you need. Building trust with a customer, especially one who doesn’t know you from Adam, the best thing you could ever do is just take them out and show them what they need for their car.
VIS: There’s a stigma about auto mechanics being dishonest.
JB: You can’t get more honest than that. You go to some places and they’ll tell you ‘Hey, you need this, here’s the bill.’ That never settled right in my stomach.
VIS: What’s the most high-performance car you’ve ever worked on?
JB: I used to build racecars for a living.
VIS: What kind of racing?
JB: Circle track and straight cars, drag racing. Customers would just come in and say ‘Build me this’ or ‘This is my budget, this is what i’m looking to make.’ I used to build racing transmissions for cars up at Stafford Springs.
VIS: Have any crazy backstage or concert stories? Ever bitten a bat’s head off? Been arrested onstage by New Haven police?
JB: (Laughs) Nah. Right now we’re working with a new producer, and are in the process of doing another album to follow up our first, “Clone,” which was released in 2009.
